JE + BW

then being the ones to absolutely nope the fuck out at the first chance they got to flee after the Pinkertons' invasion of the gang's final stand, so quickly to the point that they never even showed up as enemies on the mini map nor appeared in the mission ever again.

(credit to Novice on YouTube for pointing this out that they completely disappear as soon as the shooting starts)

Almost like they took the bare bones idea of Dutch and Micah's plan without the "going back to Blackwater" part of it.

No one asked about them afterwards; they left seemingly completely unnoticed in all the chaos going on.

It becomes a pattern of behavior for Javier that leads into RDR1 where he's only loyal to people until it interferes with his instinct for self-survival which goes above all else

And for Bill, when John comes looking for him, Bill's choice to desert Dutch comes back as resentment toward John for not saving him, forcing Bill into making the autonomous choice for himself to get out

But it's just as John says,

Bill took pride in following Dutch just as much as he took pride in the future over running his own gang, but it was also fear that kept him with Dutch so long because he saw no better option - nor did Javier. Dutch always saw them right, so they thought, and he would do it again. But it wasn't until that night of the final separation of the gang where everyone took their side that they both realized the truth, it seemed. They did, in the end, do what Arthur told them:

me rn

a few shots of Javier's hands I wanted to post